Delayed Reaction: Luca

Premise: Two sea-monster friends run away from home on land where they hide as regular humans in a town that doesn't like sea monsters.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Pixar is cursed by their past success. Anytime they come out with a movie, they're immediately met with how it compares to Wall-E, Toy Story, Up, or whatever your Pixar Mt. Rushmore includes. Sure, the Pixar name also virtually guarantees a Certified Fresh rating and $100 million before the lamp logo even turns its head. A lot of people complain about the rubber-stamping for Pixar at the Oscars. There's good and bad to it. Luca, for example, is a really nice movie. It's funny. It's decently clever. There's a world to it that is thought out and feels full. Good performances from the voice cast, which doesn't only pull the biggest names it can get. I loved spotting all the easter eggs throughout. I fully enjoyed this movie.

 

Yet, it didn't give me the existential crisis of Inside Out or Soul. The food looked better in Ratatouille. Finding Nemo and Dory had more fun with the underwater jokes. The brand is almost too strong. It seems like the consensus on Luca is that it's "only" an enjoyable, effective Pixar effort. Shouldn't that be enough?

 

I do wonder where in the development cycle for this Call Me By Your Name came around. It's another movie about a male relationship in the beautiful Italian countryside. I'm bored by the discussion about potential LGBTQ+ themes in it. I think that's a fair read. I don't think it was the point of the story but it could be a feature of it. The fact that it's hard to see this movie and not think of Call Me By Your Name colors that take a lot. That this movie has the same name as the Call Me By Your Name director doesn't help either.

 

The voice cast really worked for me. Jacob Tremblay isn't too recognizable by voice alone, so that wasn't distracting. Apparently, I've seen Jack Dylan Grazer in a number of movies, but I couldn't pick him out of a lineup. Those two pair well as the lead friends. Newcomer Emma Berman as their human friend Giulia is good too. Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan are spitting fire throughout as Tremblay's parents, desperately trying to find him. I don't recognize any other names in the cast, but they all sounded reasonably Italian. Surely this can't be the first Pixar movie without John Ratzenberg in it?

 

I'm not sure how I feel about what these straight-to-Disney+ premieres are doing to Pixar's brand. Soul and now Luca don't feel like they would've been huge hits for the studio, so maybe this is them taking advantage of the situation. Luca is lower-middle tier Pixar, which is still better than most things out there. Having watched Home on the Range right before this, I fully appreciate the ability to make a fun kid's movie that still has room for Fellini sight gags.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend